1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and method for delivering a road map data into any one of movable bodies from which a request to deliver the road map data is issued with a function of a charging process executed for the delivery of the road map data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Navigation systems for automotive vehicles to navigate the vehicles have been placed on a market. In each of the navigation systems, a road map data (also called, a geographical data) is displayed through a display unit installed within a vehicular passenger compartment to guide the vehicle to be traveled to a desired destination. In such navigation systems as described above, a position and a direction of the vehicle which, in general, are detected using a GPS (Global Positioning System), a vehicle speed sensor, and a directional sensor are superimposed on the road map data read from a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM and displayed on the display unit.
However, since the road map data previously stored in the record medium such as the CD-ROM or the DVD-ROM is displayed on a display screen of the display unit, in such a navigation system as described above, the road map data which is displayed on the display screen of the display unit becomes different from an actual road situation in a case, for example, where a new road has been opened to a traffic and/or a new building or facility has been built.
In order to cope with such a problem as described above, a, so-called, communication type navigation system has been proposed in which a wireless telecommunication device such as a transceiver is equipped in the vehicle and a latest road map data is downloaded from a road map data delivery device which provides a delivering service on the road map data via a communication device which is enabled to be communicated in a bi-directional communication and the downloaded road map data is displayed on the display screen of the display unit.
In such a communication type navigation system as described above, a predetermined charging process is, ordinarily, implemented to the delivery of the road map data from the road map data delivery device. Methods of implementing the predetermined charging process, for example, include a method of charging an amount of money to a user of the navigation system in accordance with a quantity of the road map data for each of the road map data deliveries and a method of charging a constant amount of money per predetermined period of time for the road map delivery service regardless of the quantity of data delivered. In a case where the quantity of the road map data to be delivered is small, it is advantageous for the user to adopt the former method of charging the amount of money in accordance with the quantity of data for the delivery of the road map data.
However, if the method of charging the amount of money in accordance with the quantity of data for each delivery of the data were applied to the method of charging the amount of money for the deliver of the road map data to the communication type navigation system, the following problem would occur.
That is to say, in the communication type navigation system described above, a limited area road map data such that, with a present position of the vehicle as a center, a surrounding area to the present position is partitioned by a specified size is, ordinarily, delivered from the road map data delivery device. Hence, suppose a case where the limited area road map data from a point of place A to a destination is to be delivered, as shown in FIG. 12. If the deliver of the road map data at the point of place A is requested from the above-described communication type navigation system, the limited area road map data of an area xcex1 is delivered. In order to acquire a sufficient amount of the limited area road map data to the destination, the delivery of the road map data may be requested at a time point at which the vehicle has moved to a point of place B so as to acquire the limited area road map data of an area xcex2 with point of place B as a center. In this case, however, the vehicle needs to be moved with no presence of the road map data during a run of the vehicle from point of place A to point of place B. This gives an anxious feeling to a vehicle driver (viz., the user).
To avoid such an inconvenience as described above, it is necessary to request a delivery of the road map data when the vehicle has reached to a terminal point C of the area xcex1 so as to acquire the limited area road map data of an area xcex3 with terminal point C as a center. In this case, area xcex3 has a large overlapped portion on area xcex1 and road map data on area xcex3 includes data which are of a low utility value for the user. In the way described above, it gives an unsatisfactory feeling to the user that the same amount of money as the delivery of the road map data of area xcex1 is charged for the delivery of the road map data of area xcex3.
In addition, since it is difficult to accurately determine an arrival of the vehicle at terminal point C of area xcex1, a case where the delivery of the road map is requested before the vehicle has arrived at terminal point C may be considered. In this case, since the delivered road map data includes many data of a further lower utility value, it is very disadvantageous to charge the same amount of money for the delivery of such a road map data as described above as that when the road map data of area xcex1 is delivered.
Even in a case where the road map data is delivered as a mesh data, the same problem occurs when the vehicle is moved on a zigzag road as shown in FIG. 13. That is to say, in an example of FIG. 13, when the delivery of the road map data is requested at a point of place c, the mesh data of the same area (1) as that when the delivery of the road map data is requested at a point of place a is resulted to be delivered. When the delivery of the road map data is requested at a point of place f, the mesh data of the same area (4) as that when the delivery of the road map data is requested at a point of place d. When the delivery of the road map data at the point of place g is requested, the mesh data of the same area (3) as that when the delivery of the road map data is requested at a point of place e is resulted to be delivered.
As described above, the user largely dissatisfies with the charge for the delivery of the mesh data of the same area by the same amount of money in spite of the fact that the mesh data of the same area has been delivered.
It is, hence, an object of the present invention to provide apparatus and method for delivering road map data which give a high convenience for the user by carrying out an appropriate charging process in accordance with a utility value of the road map data.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a road map data delivering apparatus comprising: a road map data storing section in which a plurality of road map data are stored; a road map data delivering section that, in response to a request to deliver the road map data to a movable body issued from the same movable body, retrieves one of the road map data which corresponds to the delivery requested road map data and delivers the retrieved road map data to the same movable body; a delivery history storing section in which a delivery history of each road map data through the road map data delivering section is stored; and a charging process section that executes a charging process for the delivery of the road map data carried out by the road map data delivering section in such a manner as to refer to the delivery history of the delivered road map data stored in the delivery history storing section and to charge an amount of money discounted from a predetermined amount of money at a rate of discount varied in accordance with a degree of an overlap in a case where the road map data presently delivered to the road map data delivery requested movable body includes a portion on which the road map data delivered to the same movable body in the past is overlapped.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a road map data delivering method comprising: storing a plurality of road map data; in response to a request to deliver the road map data to a movable body issued from the same movable body, retrieving one of the road map data which corresponds to the delivery requested road map data; delivering the retrieved road map data to the same movable body; storing a delivery history of each road map data delivered in a delivery history storing section; and executing a charging process for the delivery of the road map data in such a manner as to refer to the delivery history of the delivered road map data and to charge an amount of money discounted from a predetermined amount of money at a rate of discount varied in accordance with a degree of an overlap in a case where the road map data presently delivered to the road map data delivery requested movable body includes a portion on which the road map data delivered to the same movable body in the past is overlapped.
This summary of the invention does not necessarily describe all necessary features so that the invention may also be a sub-combination of these described features.